Just got in my first 4 EXR-5 keyboards and I'm really happy with these new boards!
First, they are easy as can be to use and I really like the sounds for a keyboard at this price. It has the good Roland stereo grand piano found in the VA7 and it uses catagory buttons and families of sound to get around. No longer is Roland using the system of choosing a sound and then pushing the variation button if there are more than 1 sound. Now, you can find every sound by changing numbers or using the + and - keys. The polyphony is 64 voice and the sequencer is an easy to use 16 track with your choice of first recording the style and melody and then going back and recording more tracks or doing it one track at a time.
The styles are all very nicely done with a choise of bass + drum, small combo and full band. Each has original and variation.

There are 510 original roland panel sounds +542 XG sounds +256 GM2 sounds. There are 20 Drum kits +11XG drum kits + 9 GM2 drum kits.
The Keyboard is compatible with GM2, GS and XG lite.
There are 103 styles in flash memory (84 factory + 19 changeable which come loaded from the factory and then I can load more styles into flash until I use up all the memory from floppy disks or via USB. I loaded in a few middle eastern styles and they are now inside the keyboard for quick recall.
There is a cool feature from the discover 5 which is called "Cover" function. There are 5 of them. Acoustic, Pop, Rock, Dance and Ethnic. It's cool because when playing styles or smf files you can change the voice selections to fit different genres by just pushing one of these 5 buttons and if you turn them off, you are back to the original. Also, when playing midi files there is a music minus one function button and all 5 "cover" lights come on and by turning one or all off you mute certain tracks quickly of the playing midi file.
You get 10 user program buttons to store your favorite settings.
There is a music assistant button which has 126 different one touch registrations stored for quickly finding a song and playing with a correct style, sound, effects, tempo, etc.
You can split and layer any sounds and there are 18 types of Melody Intelligence (harmony) selections.
The speakers are 10 watts each and there is also a "digital bass enhancer". This keyboard is loud! without external speakers. A set of stereo line out jacks are on the back along with USB and Midi In and Out. It weighs 8kg (sorry I don't know the lb conversion but it is very light).
I see this as a great new product which will sell in the $600 to $700 range. There is nothing else in my store quite like this in this price range. It's what I thought the EM55 should have been. This keyboard is much easier to use then the EM55 which had a list price of $995.00.
There is also a EXR-3 which lists at $595.00 but does not have the floppy disk drive and the speaker system is 1/2 the power at 5watts per side instead of 10watts.
This is the first "price right" Roland I've seen in a long time.
If I were rating a keyboard like Keyboard Magazine does I would give this a "best buy" rating. Check it out if you get a chance and tell me if you agree with me.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566

George, does the "5" read lyrics and/or chords as the Discover 5..also does it mark locations within a smf..

George, does the "5" read lyrics and/or chords as the Discover 5..also does it mark locations within a smf..


No Fran, it does not read lyrics and it does not mark locations within an smf. This keyboard's only similarity to the discover 5 is the "cover" buttons. The discover 5 is designed for smf playback and doesn't include style play where this model is just the opposite except that it can play smf files.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

What do you think George, is this a little taste of what's about to come from Roland's soon to come top arranger?


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Roy-Andrè

George, great review! Does the this new Roland allow you to record user styles from scratch?

Squeak

Yes, George, it seems a nice kb. I played one yesterday, and I liked it. But I see two bad things:

1. A little screen (the same as EM-25), and a few tedious O.S. for selecting styles, sounds, and functions. A lot of functions must be done using "function" button, and, then, pushing + or - many times.

2. No possibility of editing styles. You may only modify (or mute) the volume of drums, bass, and accomp. (all the six accomp. tracks globally, as it was an only track). It is all. You can't modify the voices assigned to each of the six accompaniment tracks, nor mute some of them. I remember EM-55 lets you mute each of these six accomp tracks; EXR-5 can't, you may mute all of them only. At less, styles have 2 + 2 variations, because each variation has two versions: combo and full band (equivalent to "normal" versus "advanced mode" in old roland kbs). So, really there are 4 variations. Of course, there is the cover function, that give more variation; but there is no more the morphing style function. At the end, the bad thing rests: no editing styles possibility.

Finally, two questions:

In your review, you say almost nothing about SOUNDS. What's your opinion about them? Is piano voice really good, better than PSRs (1000, 2000), for example?

In that price range, there is Yamaha PSR550 , but has these Yamaha smaller keys, and its bad key feel. Fortunately, this little Roland has normal key size, and good key feel; the pleasure of playing will be greater. At the end, do you think this new roland is the best buy, and a better kb, globally, than Yamahas or Casios near in price?


Best whishes



[This message has been edited by Artaher (edited 01-30-2004).]

What about the sequencer in the new Roland? Since you cannot edit styles, does the sequencer allow you to loop????

Squeak

George, for future reference, 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds, so the keyboard weighs 17.6 pounds.

Tom

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Bigger is not always better

I don't think this keyboard has anything to do with whatever Roland is working on as a new high end arranger. I do think that this keyboard presents alot of bang for the buck compared to other Roland keyboards. The sounds are very much out of the VA7 engine and although you can't make styles from scratch, there are so many Roland styles available on the web that for me, most of my customers can get whatever they need without having to make their own. Also, if you are a roland user with other keyboards and you want a light weight unit to take to partys, etc., you can make your styles on a big G1000, etc. and play them via the floppy drive or a laptops USB port.
I'm not at my store at this moment but I think this is a larger and brighter display then the EM25, but I might be wrong. I have no EM25s left to compare it to.
I was impressed yesterday with the total package at an impressive price for what Roland has done in the past that I didn't look to see what you could and couldn't do with style track volume, etc. parameters. I tried to play with sounds, styles and tried out the sequencer. I did find that using the function button was quite easy because their are two levels of left and right arrows to first find the catagory of function and then find the individual function you wish to change by using the + and - buttons.
I will be playing with the keyboard more today and will search other features out as quickly as I can.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George,
Can you comment on the accoustic grand piano voice. When I tried, it sounded very electric. It seemed to me that only a few of the organ samples had the Leslie sim.
How do you access the XG voices?
Starkeeper

Best new piano Ive heard is on the new Triton Extreme [Orpendorpher Concert Grand (sp)]that I saw on the NAMM video on harmony central....
http://trio.harmony-central.com/ramgen/WNAMM04/Korg-Triton-Extreme.rm

When will they make arrangers with sounds like that Kb has? [sigh]

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-30-2004).]

Dnj,
To be honest with you aside from the Triton product you mentioned, I think the top end arrangers tend to hvae better bread and butter sounds than many of the top synths. I think the good arrangers really shine in the acoustic voice area. I remember when I owned a Roland XP-60 and Yamaha EX-7. I felt that some of the acoustic voices on my lower end Yamaha sounded better. Look at the new synths such as the Yamaha Motif ES. They're now using voices like sweet, cool, live, and mega on this model.. They've taken the voices from the arranger line up because they're good enough to be used on the pro synths...

Squeak

well sound is so subjective isn't it?
I loved my old Korg M1 sounds myself....
I guess this will never be resolved....there is no perfect and never will be KB..

jam on

Exactly.. Sounds are very subjective. I've had conversations with people who prefer the piano sound of the Casio WK-1800 over the PSR-2000...... Personally I think there's no competition there and the Yamaha wins hands down, but again as stated sound quality to users is subjective

Squeak

why didnt your like the Triton extreme piano video shown..?

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-30-2004).]

Thanks, George, for your informations. We will wait the results of your more detailed search about the new roland exr-5.

A plus of this kb is that it can load ALL STYLES MADE BY ROLAND (from E, EM, G. KR, and VA series) or for Roland kbs (original or converted ones).

Do you know how many Mb for sounds EXR-5 has?
They say "eight times more than previous models". If previous is EM-25, with 1 Mb, there will be 8 Mb. Only 8 Mb for 510 panel voices + 542 XG tones + 256 GM2 tones + 20 drum kits???



[This message has been edited by Artaher (edited 01-30-2004).]

George,
Can you comment on the accoustic grand piano voice. When I tried, it sounded very electric. It seemed to me that only a few of the organ samples had the Leslie sim.
How do you access the XG voices?
Can you explain what is meant by the following two specifications:
103 styles (83 preset/20 programmable)
Flash memory (songs and styles 1.5MB)
So does this mean you can have 20 styles plus as many as will fit in the flash memory?
One web site said it had a volume pedal connection? Is this correct?
The Roland US website said this,"The User memory has room for up to 99 new styles and up to 99 songs (1.5MB total)"
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 02-04-2004).]

Hi George,
maybe for those who are keen to do their own styles, EMC Style Works may be an option???
Haven't used mine recently, but I think it again, has the option of turning a style into a midifile, exporting it to a sequencer, editing it, then turning it back into a style. Would depend on whether or not the program recognizes this keyboards style format.

Sorry, haven't got any time to do any personal checking as I'm just about to go & spend time hubby in hospital. It's going to be a long, long 5 weeks.


best wishes
Rikki

Starkeeper,
When I go into the store tomorrow I will have some answers for you.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Thanks George,
I appreciate it. If a voice sample does not have leslie sim then could I apply the 47 multi-effects to add this?
Starkeeper

8mb for the sounds. Wow thats alot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

8mb's isn't too bad.. Is that 8mb's used for the panel voices, XG, and GM together???? I would assume this board would go up against the PSR-550. My only thing is will this board be capable of recording a user style. I see under the specs from G. Kaye that 19 of the styles are changable. It would be a shame if this keyboard didn't offer any type of loop recording for custom styles. Even my old Yamaha PSR-540 did loop recording for styles.

Squeak

The specs say 20 programable styles. Is that programable or changeable. Big Differnece.
Would that be programable on the board or off? Don't know. THe EXR-5 has a lot of buttons, but they are for different functions, not for voice and mixer changes as on the PSR550. The price point would place it against the PSR550, but Roland can't match Yamaha's "Sweet voices". Roland's flute is unuseable IMO and Yamaha's is excellent. I never use the flute on my Roland EM.
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 02-05-2004).]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dnj:
[B]why didnt your like the Triton extreme piano video shown..?

Hey Donny,

I enjoyed the short piano samples from the Korg but I was wondering what you thought of the piano sound on the Roland Fantom X? I thought it had a very nice mellow, warm sound.

http://trio.harmony-central.com/ramgen/WNAMM04/Roland-Fantom-X.rm

mike

Very nice. We sometimes debate here as to what piano voices you like, and we say it's subjective. Do you prefer the Roland piano voice or Yamaha piano voice, but the question to ask is which one comes closest to sounding like a real accoustic piano.
This is very close to the real thing.
Starkeeper

Ok, now it's my turn :-) I bought the EXR-5 two weeks ago, and I could find so little about this new gear on the web, I also made a "Userpage" for it at www.exr5.tk - On that page I wrote my review, which I will paste here now for your amusement

The new Roland EXR-5 (and it's brother EXR-3) are, according to Roland, the arranger keyboards with the best sounds available at Roland today. Let me give you my opinion after having this keyboard for a week

Before I bought this one, I owned the EM-25, and I particularly like the fact that Roland seems to have "fixed" some of the things -I- thought were the "downsides" of the EM-25 model.

To mention a few things: The EXR-5 has a pitchbender/modulation-stick (EM25 had none), seperate Left/Right jack-outputs, two headphone-outputs in the front of the keyboard, the diskdrive is mounted in the middle of the board (the EM-25 had it on the right side, which caused some trouble when you put it on a stand) and the EXR-5 has a normal analogue volume-knob (the EM-25 had two buttons +/- that worked on the MIDI-volume 0-127)

Enough comparison though, let's talk about the EXR-5 some more.

For the full technical specs I'd like to refer to the Roland website, since it's not really meaningful to repeat the brochure here

Overall
I liked this board the moment I saw it. It has a less "toy-ish" look than the EM-series, well-designed buttons, lit buttons where it's handy to have them, and a clear and well-designed display. But does it work well?

Working with sounds
Selecting sounds is easy on this new model. No more fiddling about with A and B-banks, just key in the number of the patch (you'll learn them by heart quick enough ) and off you go. To help you select them, the EXR-5 has 8 buttons to select "families" of sounds. From there, you can browse through the sounds within that "family"... but not all of them! For some odd reason, Roland decided that we didn't have to be able to browse through ALL the sounds. If you want sounds outside the GM2/GS range, you have to look up the patchnumber on the (included) patcheslist and key it in on the numeric keypad. Weird.

Also, the numeric keypad is designed like a telephone keypad. I.e the 1 is on the upper left corner, the 9 lower-righ corner. I find this highly unlogical. Maybe because I'm used to my numeric keypad on a computer keyboard (with the 1 on lower-left, 9 on upper-right) but I guess I'll just have to get used to it.

Quality of the sounds
This is truly one great sounding keyboard! Great pianos (coming from Roland's RD-series), fabulous guitars and even the brass-section is finally sounding "natural" (love that breath-sax!). Organsounds from "cool organ" to filthy raw rockorgans, it's all there. Being a drummer originally, I am quite difficult to please when it comes to drumsounds. But the EXR-5 did not disappoint me at all. Some of the kits I find really awful, (like the TR-kits) but that may also be caused by the fact that I don't like house-like electronic music that much - I'm getting old, I guess

When playing the drums manually (yes I do that ) it's great to find that Roland has combined the two snaresounds (D-key E-key) so that you can play your snare as if you had a real one. They are not two different snaresounds, but one "normal hit" and one "rimshot/head combination coming from the same snare (in standard kits). If you can play the drums manually, you'll like this feature.

Nothing negative to mention about the sounds?

Oh yes, sure. I don't know why they did it, but Roland has moved some of the standard GS/GM2 sounds to other patchnumbers and replaced them with new sounds. In other words: Program number 49 used to be "normal quick strings", and now it's a new kind of strings. This causes old compositions you carefully put together (in MIDI) to sound real weird sometimes. It also took me a while to "re-find" that old strings-sound I was so used to. Found it in a whole different patchnumber, and not before I turned off the chorus on that patch. The same goes for the brass-section sounds. I used to have quick attacking, bright and non-chorussed brass-sections in the EM-25 and older boards, Roland has made new brass-sections and put them in place of the old ones.

In other words: some of the "improved" sounds make you wonder where that "neutral" sound has gone. But of course, if this is your first board you won't have a problem with it.

Styles
Now let's have a look at the "Intelligent Arranger" side of this EXR-5. It's easy to use, first of all. The display tells you very well what is selected and what is not and while playing, the well-arranged buttons make it easy to switch from original to fills, variations, intros and ending. The Cover-function is quite nice too. Some quite "harsh" sounding arrangements suddenly sound real smooth when using the "Accoustic" cover, too cheesy sounding Ballad-arrangements get just enough extra "spice" when using them with the "Pop"-cover (or even "Rock" cover). This way you can use the 119 different styles in more than 700 different ways... there MUST be one style you can use

Recording
The EXR-5 has an on-board 16 track sequencer. This of course is great when you have that sudden burst of inspiration, but someone else is using your computer (sound familiar? ) Just turn on the EXR-5, press REC and record what you want. The sequencer can record all MIDI-channels at once, or channel-by-channel. This way you can record using the arranger first, and replace parts of the arrangement afterwards.
Downside: Recording only starts using the START/STOP button, so you can't just let the metronome click away while you play your own drums.
Of course you can save your recording and import it in your computer-sequencer later to work with it.

"Physical" quality
I think it's all well-constructed. Good keys, like I'm used to have on Roland keyboards, a well-responding pitchbender that does not feel like it will break when handled "too rough", all buttons on the panel respond well, although I wouldn't mind if they responded to a little less pressure. When selecting a new sound, you need to press the three numeric buttons quite firmly or you'll end up with a whole different sound than the one you meant to select...

The speakers on the EXR-5 are wonderful. It has a bass-reflex system, so you can enjoy the really good sounds without having to connect it to an external amp or speakerset. The "grills" on the speakers are made of metal and are mounted well so they won't rattle at any time, even when you're playing that low keys on the fretless bass. In fact, nothing rattles while playing, even though the keyboard produces real deep bass-sounds. Good job!

Connections
Just a few words on the connectivity of the EXR-5: Using the USB cable that comes with the board, you can connect the keyboard to your computer. It will show up as an external harddisk, and allows you to easily transfer MIDI-files, userprograms and styles to and from the 1,5 MB Flash-memory in the EXR-5. This way you don't even need the diskdrive! (To make sure you want the EXR-5 instead of the diskdrive-less EXR-3, Roland has given the EXR-5 a better soundsystem (bassreflex) than the EXR-3 )

Conclusion The decision to trade in my EM-25 for this EXR-5 was quite an impulsive one, but so far I don't regret it at all. It will take me some time to get used to the sounds and to discover where the best sounds for my compositions are located, but so far it's been real fun to play the EXR-5.

Great review! Almost makes me want one.
Thanks,
DonM

Burkels,
A very good detailed review.
Can you answer some of the question asked by me and Squeak_D:
1. When I demoed the accoustic piano it sounded digital. Was I using the wrong patch number? (You answered my question as to where are all the other voices accessed). What patch number is the acoustic grand piano?
2. Can you respond to my question about the Leslie sim. It's not on all the organ voices, can that be added using DSP?
3. Can you record styles?
4. How many custom styles can you store, is it 19,20 or as much as will fill the flash ROM, or 20 plus flash ROM?
5. Can you apply the DSP to voices, and if so, how many?
On my Yamaha PSR550 styles are kept alive by a battery. Roland uses flash ROM, which is really progressive. No hard drive, no battery, no SD card, good job Roland.
When I demoed the EXR-5 the percussive organ was very good, with Leslie sim as well.
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 02-06-2004).]

Accoustic Grand should be patch 001. Although the speakers on the EXR-5 are very good, they may not have been able to convince you of the pianosound Hook it up to a good amp or use a headphone, and try again. I think the grand sounds good, better than the sound it had on my "old" EM-25.

You can assign the MFX-module to ROTARY on any patch you want. Using the MODULATION bender, you can switch between fast and slow rotary.

No, the EXR-models do not have style-recording or -editing capabilities.

Well, that confused me too, since I read in my manual that the limit is 19 userstyles, but George mentioned up to 99 Userstyles in flashmemory. So I simply started loading styles into the memory, and indeed you can just go on saving styles to Flash until the 1,5 MB is full.

I guess you mean by DSP what Roland calls "Multi Effects" or MFX. You can assign one of the 47 different MFX to the MAIN-part of the keyboard (i.e. the upper hand, channel 4). This means you can not assign different effects to the other parts of the style. The MFX setting ONLY applies to the MAIN part. (Roland really needs to hire someone who can write useful manuals. It took me a while to figure out what they meant :-)

Bart

Fran Carango just bought a EXR-5.....
I cant wait for his review....won't be long..

Just out of curiousity: what will make Fran's review so valuable after George's and mine?

Is that a joke? That's why you winked. A EXR-5 would be a sizeable downgrade from a G1000.
Starkeeper

ALL reviews are valuable. I read all reviews carefully, they are a wealth of information.
Starkeeper

Well, Bart..
it is very different to have 1,5 Mb for styles in flash room (a lot of styles), or only 19 styles.
It is rare because Roland prospects say 19 styles, but 99 styles is a lot better!!!

And, my feeling about this kb:
a good kb for its price, good sounds, good styles (better than yamahas, I think), good keys and good key feel, but only an important bad (for an arranger kb) point: no styles editing.
Specially it is a bad point for using styles from third party (other rolands kbs, or converted ones). If it is not possible to "tune" or "adjust" these external styles to kb, a lot of external styles may not going to sound very well. It is the same than PSRs, but PSRs may modify or tune styles...

Fran Carango! It is the time for your EXR-5 review... and your informations about the new 2004 Roland kb when you know something about it.



[This message has been edited by Artaher (edited 02-06-2004).]

That's true. Although the EXR-5 accepts all styles (G-series, E-series, EM-series, VA-series), they sometimes come out a bit "off". Not unusable, but you may wish to be able to alter the style on some aspects.


[This message has been edited by Burkels (edited 02-06-2004).]

Yes, Bart, this was my feeling when loaded external styles to EXR-5. Some sound well, some not.

It will be interesting to know if is there a software for modify roland styles in a pc.
EMC may do, but it costs a lot of money.

I will give my review after the weekend..Some of you will be surprized at what I have to say...Most of what George and Burkels has stated are acurate with a few exceptions..I will explain later...My first impressions were not overly positive[right out of the box], but with some changes in my set up, my opinion may be different..I have to keep in mind that the EXR5 is $800 list...What may be different in my review, I try to push the limits to find what it can't do and how to get the most out of the board...Just about every Roland I have owned, I have found tricks or methods to do what Roland says it can't do..We shal see...All this typing and I haven't said anything yet...

I think Burkel's review is well written. I enjoyed reading your review. I think both of us realize, and probably Fran too, that this keyboard is a very good value at it's price range. Not being able to record or edit in detail on the board is a negative for some, but most of my customers just play the styles and sounds and don't do much adjusting.
I think I recorded using the sync. start button to start recording without having to push the start button. I'm not sure about this as I'm not with the EXR5 right now.
Can't wait to hear from Fran!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Yes George, you can indeed start recording using SYNC START, but what I meant was, that you can't record without having the automatic drums active. Not a really bad thing, but I'd like it if I could start "from scratch" with only the metronome clicking away :-)

Okay, I understand now :-) I read his short note here, and I'd love to hear what kind of hidden tricks he can come up with. I too have the experience that my Roland-boards can do more than Rolands wants you to know :-)

Bart

Hi Fran, nice to 'meet' you, heard a lot about you - In my case, the decision to buy the EXR-5 was even easier. I bought the EM-25 two years ago, and made a good deal with my dealer trading it in. The EXR-5 costs only € 599,- here, so... What made me decide I "hadtogetmewannathese!" was the demo of the board I downloaded from a Danish site. Compared to the sounds in the EM-25, this thing had a lot more to offer. And since I use my boards as soundmodules rather than using the arrangerfunctions that much, sounds are very important to me.

The EXR-5 is hooked up with Cubase SX here, and -if- I ever use styles, it's to quickly record that rough sketch of that Great Tophit that I have in my head After that, I replace every track using Cubase, playing all parts myself (and adding analogue guitars and vocals later)

And for that price... I really couldn't resist

I believe the EM25 has 1 meg wave ROM (same as the EM10), and the EXR-5 has an 8 meg wave ROM. That is a substantial difference, that you have unmistakenly noticed. When I demoed the EM10 about 3 years ago, I was not impressed, but was impressed by the EM20 which has 8 megs wave ROM. It sounded about 8 times better (that's logical), with more voices as well. Would have been appropriate for Roland to increase the wave ROM since it is an upgrade to the EM20/EM30/EM50 series.
Also looking forward to Fran's review.
Starkeeper

Well, if EXR-5 has 8 Mb and PSR2100 has 32 or more... And, if EXR-5 has more sounds than PSR2100 (so, has less Mb for each sound)...
then, how is possible EXR-5 has better sounds (as Fran say).

I think there is something not clear about Mb for sounds.
For example, 2100 has two times the 2000 Mbs, but does not sound a lot better, only a few better, if something.

Perhaps Yamaha Mb are compressed... or Yamaha counts its Mb nor only for sounds... of Roland make better sounds, or ...

I don't think there is a iron rule that says "the more MB's, the better the sound". I can send you a 200 MB wave file of the worst recording of a piano, for instance.



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Roland EXR-5 user - http://www.exr5.tk